therighttime | AU Milliways

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AU Milliways

The door opens from one pub to the next. A rosy-tinted, warm little English pub filled to the brim with uniformed soldiers and local girls, crowing and laughing and being alive, really feeling it for the first time in longer than any of them would like to admit.

The woman who is leaving that particular pub is tall - very tall, inches over six feet - shapely in her 1940s olive dress uniform. Her make-up is fresh, her tie in perfect order, her hair is even curled in classic victory rolls (it took three showgirls three hours to make it happen, but they're all used to it by now).

Stephanie Rogers is grinning, flush-faced and filled with joy as she waves to a dark-haired soldier at the bar and steps purposefully into -- another bar.

She recognizes a shift, a difference immediately, and keeps one hand on the knob even as she frowns thoughtfully at the room around her.

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Those fair blue eyes Synthia noticed so early on are even more prominent with how wide they are in an instant.

"He's-"

Johann Schmidt has a daughter. Erskine never- the doctor never said anything about the man having a family, never said anything about a child still alive or with abilities like this.

"W-well now. That's-"

Steph stops herself. Tries to get her words, her face, her tone under control. She's not certain she succeeds but she won't punish the girl for being honest with her. So Steph pauses and swallows and pulls her shoulders back enough to look Synthia in the eye, to give her that much respect.

"...yes. Yes, I'm fighting against your father."

Synthia herself has brown eyes. They're flecked with bright blue, and they're serene, much like the girl they belong to. "Good," she murmurs.

"He's planning something very big. And dangerous."

Good. Says a girl against her own father. And with such a father.

Steph meets those stunning eyes, the girl looking far too old for her size and her face.

She nods solemnly, taking this news as seriously as she would from any one of her men, or even Colonel Philips himself.

"Yes. You're right. But we're going to find out what it is, Synthia. And we're going to stop him."

She takes a breath; Synthia knows this is treason, or something like it. She shouldn't say things about her own father, but she has to--people that don't deserve it are going to get hurt. And there's no love lost between her and Johann, none at all.

"I could tell you if you'll teach me to play marbles?"

Steph blinks, gentling. She has to lace her hands together in her lap to stop from reaching out and touching the girl.

"I'll teach you to play if you want me to," she says, her voice gentle but very firm. This is the truth in the way that only Captain America is ever so earnest. "You don't have to give me anything to get that."

"I don't want him to win," she says, looking away at last. "I don't like him, and I don't want him to kill everybody in America."

Synthia says it so calmly, so assuredly, that you could think she'd been planning this for months. She hasn't, because not one of the allied soldiers that have come near her father's forces has ever survived.

Forget being careful.

Steph's hand is large and warm and very gentle as it covers Synthia's, head ducked to try and look her in the eye. Her hair's still in curls for the time being, but the important part is that it's pinned back securely and the girl will have a good view of her face, will be able to see how much Steph wants to reassure her.

"You can tell me whatever you want to tell me. And I'll always listen, okay?"

Synthia bites her lip and rolls the tiny hard ball between her fingers. It feels like another interrogation even if she knows it isn't.

But she takes a breath and begins to talk, about everything with the Tesseract and the Valkyrie and Johann's plans, in no particular order. She doesn't know everything, but what Synthia has heard and remembers is important. It could change the war, depending on who hears her and what they do.

Steph might have only just been made an officer, and only a captain at that, but she's more famous than any other and the first woman to have the title ever.

Synthia might have just told the one person who needed to hear it to get something done.

The Tesseract isn't something she understands beyond 'it is dangerous' and the need to get it away from Schmidt and Germany as soon as possible. The Valkyrie is more in line with that she was warned about, what she was expecting joining the war. And Schmidt's plans, mad as they are, fit just as well into what the doctor told her.

So she can keep her head where she is, in this bar with this girl, while also taking the mental notes needed to prepare a report and a plan for Philips later.

Steph looks at Synthia, she gives her all of her attention, and her hand stays over the smaller one on top of a bar, resting without pressing down, making it easy for Synthia to pull away if she wants to.

And when she's finished, when she's said all she's going to say, Steph ducks her head again, searching for eye contact.

So she can say a quiet, heart-felt, "Thank you."

Synthia, when she falls quiet, takes a long while to get her breath.

"I don't want to go back there." What if Steph never comes? What if someone finds out she told the Americans their biggest secrets? What if, what if, what if...

Steph's heart stutters.

"I don't know what this place is," she says softly, tapping the counter softly with her free hand, "or what it means that we come here. But if you can't stay here, if you have to go back... Synthia, I'm going to do everything I can to find you. I'm a captain in the Army and I'm going to tell my Colonel who you are, where you are, and I'm going to insist he send a team to find you."

"He outranks you," she says quietly.

"What if he won't let you?"

"I'll throw a fit," Steph replies immediately, smirking a little. It's everyone's fear, with a woman on the team, and damn right she'd do it.

But there's something else, too.

"Do you, um. Do you know Captain America?"

She stills.

"Yes." How does she say that she's supposed to be the weapon that can beat Captain America?

If she had her shield on her-- not that it's far. She wouldn't let it be. But it's not close enough to offer solid proof.

"A colonel outranks Captain America, too. But the captain would never let you stay with your father if you didn't want to, no matter what has to be done to convince the colonel."

"Will you tell him?"

Him?

Steph blinks, eyes wide.

Not that- she's already met Steve, of course, it must have been possible, but to hear the first person to recognize her title recognize it as Steve's.

She likes Steve. She does. And what little they've talked, she trusts him enough to know he probably couldn't let Schmidt have Synthia anymore than Steph can. She could tell him and rest assured, he'd be as appalled as Steph was.

She'll do it soon. Now. As soon as Synthia feels better.

"Yes, I will." She smiles, trying for comforting. "If we're all here at the same time, maybe he can come talk to you. If you want."

She's a bright child, Synthia--the blink makes her brain kick into high gear. A captain, this woman in front of her is a captain in the Army.

"Why do you look that way?" she asks, not liking the way Steph's eyes are wide and a little shocked. Has she said or done something wrong?

Steph's hand is still over hers and she curls her fingers, careful. "It's nothing important," she promises. "You know that sometimes worlds and people are different here than they are at home? You surprised me. But I've met Captain America here, too, and I'll talk to him."

The little hand under Steph's finally curls, flexes and relaxes and spreads flat on the bar top.

"Is he nice?" she asks finally.

She has a better handle on this question, considering the way he'd introduced himself. "He's very nice," Steph promises, smiling fondly. "He likes to draw."

Synthia manages a tiny smile. "I like to paint," she says. "And to read."

Steph grins back, pleased. "Me, too. I learned on charcoal and pencils, but I love painting. What do you like to read?"

"I like everything. Adventure books mostly."

"All kinds of adventure? I read The Hobbit a while back and liked it a lot. That's a great adventure."

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